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New Shopko Sign Installed

Valley City’s brand new Shopko Hometown Store will open for the first time Sunday, Sept. 23, albeit on a limited basis, said assistant manager Sue Martin Monday.

Along with Sunday’s informal partial opening, a grand opening has been set for 8:30 a.m. Oct. 18, when the fully stocked store will be open to the public for the first time, Martin said.

On Wednesday, Jack and Cody States of Indigo Sign Works were hard at work putting up massive signs announcing the new store name both just off the Main Street West frontage road and on the front of the building.
Previously the Shopko building was home to Pamida, which closed for a week starting Sept. 16 so modeling to covert the operation into a Shopko Hometown Store went into full swing.

For the limited opening, Shopko will sell consumables, such as health and beauty items, over-the-counter medication, beverages, snacks and candy.

The remainder of Valley City’s store will be fully-stocked for the grand opening, after the apparel and home departments are converted and filled with merchandise.

Shopko and Pamida have been familiar with each other since 1999 when ShopKo Stores Inc. purchased Pamida but ran the stores separately. But in 2007, Pamida and Shopko split, and Pamida reestablished its headquarters in Omaha, Neb. Finally, at the beginning of this year, Shopko and Pamida announced their plans to merge and convert all but four Pamida stores to Shopko Hometown Stores.

Shopko, which was later bought by investment firm Sun Capital Partners Inc., is focused on smaller and rural communities. The company is headquartered in Green Bay, Wis., and plans to invest $80 million to convert most Pamida stores into Shopko Hometown stores.

Shopko Hometown expects the home department to open around Oct. 7, and the apparel department is set to open by the time of the grand opening.

Planned for the grand opening are a ribbon cutting, refreshments and special giveaways, including gift cards.

Shopko is a general merchandise retailer just like Pamida, but customers can expect to see more variety and more depth of product selection in certain departments, such as apparel and household.

The store will have the same hours of operation, which is 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, and 12 to 6 p.m. Sunday. The store will also employ the same staff, including general manager Scott Schmitz.